Brexit, for once some facts.

[flecc]

(Plastic baskets appear to be much dirtier than wire. They often have visible smears of various unidentifiable substances. They should have a basket washing machine!)

Agreed, they are often filthy.

On your main point, there's no doubt that basket self checkout, which is very common in major towns and cities where supermarkets are often larger, is very popular.

In the large Sainsburys I use there's 20 self checkout stations in that compound, 10 Cash or Card, 10 Card Only and often more than half of all customers checking out are using them, even queuing to do so. Clearly using baskets restricts the amount they can buy, often my basket ends up painfully heavy before reaching the checkout area, so they are likely to want us to use trolleys so we can buy more.

Some cheekily bring trolleys into the basket self check out area, clogging up the system, but only a couple can do that at most due to lack of space in that compound.

They did at one time have two trolley self checkout lines next to the staffed trolley checkouts, but they operated too slowly as people recorded a trolley full of content, so they scrapped them.

There's no doubt though that self checking out is the most favoured way of all, only limited at present by insufficient space and the machines provided for it.
.

 

[oyster]

In the large Sainsburys I use there's 20 self checkout stations in that compound, 10 Cash or Card, 10 Card Only and often more than half of all customers checking out are using them.

I find that is different to my local Tesco - which is huge. The scanner area is often almost deserted. (The pile of baskets from the self-scan checkouts is only easily accessible from the scanner checkout area. I quite often have to go there to get a basket.)

We can have a queue for self-checkout, queues at all open tills, and still room for scanner checkouts.

Adding:

I prefer real checkouts with real people. We tend only to use the self-checkouts when the queues are silly.

 

[flecc]

I find that is different to my local Tesco - which is huge. The scanner area is often almost deserted. (The pile of baskets from the self-scan checkouts is only easily accessible from the scanner checkout area. I quite often have to go there to get a basket.)

We can have a queue for self-checkout, queues at all open tills, and still room for scanner checkouts.

That seems similar to mine, queues at the popular self-checkout and at tills.

By scanner checkouts do you mean so called Smart Shop using the store gadgets or smartphones, in which case mine is the same too, unpopular.
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[oyster]

That seems similar to mine, queues at the popular self-checkout and at tills.

By scanner checkouts do you mean so called Smart Shop using the store gadgets or smartphones, in which case mine is the same too, unpopular.
.

I don't know what they call it, but where you grab a device from a rack using your Clubcard (I think). Then scan as you fill your trolley. (Can you scan with your mobile phone? Seems an entirely reasonable possibility.) That is what I meant as the scanner area.

If we are at the far end of the store, it can often be faster to stop at a normal till than walk the entire length of the shop to self-checkout. And even if it isn't, it is actually quite nice dealing with a human being. Most of whom are very friendly.

 

[flecc]

I don't know what they call it, but where you grab a device from a rack using your Clubcard (I think). Then scan as you fill you trolley. (Can you scan with your mobile phone? Seems an entirely reasonable possibility.) That is what I meant as the scanner area.

That 's what Sainsburys call Smartshop, so there's no difference between ours, not very popular in both cases. To scan with a mobile just means downloading their app.

If we are at the far end of the store, it can often be faster to stop at a normal till than walk the entire length of the shop to self-checkout. And even if it isn't, it is actually quite nice dealing with a human being. Most of whom are very friendly.

I used to use staffed checkouts at a more personal local Sainburys where I knew all the staff, so much so that one Indian checkout lady even cooked a curry for me once! But not at the superstore where the staff on checkouts are constantly changing. But I do know the small number of regular staff monitoring self-checkout and smartshop so that's my more human area.
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[flecc]

The madness of voting against the government in a local election has really shown here in Croydon. The Labour councillors who bankrupted our council and richly deserve to be evicted have been returned to power by just one seat by the national Labour swing:

Labour 34 councillors, (minus 7)

Tory 33 councillors, (plus 4)

Fortunately we've bucked the national trend in our first ever mayoral election by voting in a Tory mayor, so his powers should offset the council will to some extent and prevent further damage.

And we have 2 Greens and 1 Lib Dem elected so Labour have no overall majority.

But if only people had voted solely on the local issue of the terrible mess Labour made here in their term, not one of the present Labour gang would have been returned by any sane person.
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[oyster]

Quite some hack:

This morning the online Russian TV schedule page was hacked The name of every programme was changed to "On your hands is the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and their hundreds of murdered children. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war"

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1523554493144584192

 

[Woosh]

Quite some hack:

This morning the online Russian TV schedule page was hacked The name of every programme was changed to "On your hands is the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and their hundreds of murdered children. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war"

I like this comment among the replies, 'someone dropped a pravda bomb'.

 

[Woosh]

But if only people had voted solely on the local issue of the terrible mess Labour made here in their term, not one of the present Labour gang would have been returned by any sane person.

your Labour councillors were perhaps Corbynista which they no longer are.

 

[flecc]

your Labour councillors were perhaps Corbynista which they no longer are.

I understand your suspicions, but that's not really the case since they imagined themselves to be capable business people. They set up their own building firm calleed Brick by Brick (!) to build homes, but the first job they gave it was the refurbishment of the Fairfied Halls, our arts centre. Predictably it ran far over time and enormously over budget, creating a huge debt.

They did manage to build 460 homes, but at huge cost and eventually they had to close the company since it had buried us in debt to the degree that in 2021 the council had to issue a Section 114 notice that it was no longer able to meet its committments.

That was followed early this year by a second 114 notice, this indicating the council was bankrupt. Since then the council has been operating under strict supervision and unable to spend anything without prior approval. The government has bailed them out with £120 millions and large numbers of council staff and management have been made redundant.

Conversely the Tories always had a good record at our local council level, as they have in some other London boroughs, particularly Wandsworth where I think the residents may well live to regret swapping to Labour after 44 years of having the best council in the country.

Politically it's horses for courses where I'm concerned, so I vote Labour at GLC, London Mayoral and National level, but Tory at my borough level where too often Labour simply cannot be trusted to be sensible.
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[guerney]

At last! He can't be rid of soon enough IMHO. Goodbye bland safe pair of hands, hello radical leftie gov? I certainly hope so!

Keir Starmer: I'll quit if given Covid lockdown fine by police

The Labour leader is under pressure as police investigate if rules were broken in April 2021.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[jonathan.agnew]

At last! He can't be rid of soon enough IMHO. Goodbye bland safe pair of hands, hello radical leftie gov? I certainly hope so!

Keir Starmer: I'll quit if given Covid lockdown fine by police

The Labour leader is under pressure as police investigate if rules were broken in April 2021.

www.bbc.co.uk

He's a wealthy neoconservative, a career politician. Which would normally fill me with dread. But not as much as the sight of dianne Abbott clambering onto a soap box

 

[guerney]

He's a wealthy neoconservative, a career politician. Which would normally fill me with dread. But not as much as the sight of dianne Abbott clambering onto a soap box

I guess his team are quite confident that a fine being issued is unlikely

Labour says it can prove Starmer’s team worked past 1am on Beergate night

Exclusive: party to present dossier of evidence to police claiming curry and beers were part of working day

www.theguardian.com

 

[guerney]

A freer market will fix all all woes... typical Tory claptrap

Boris Johnson focuses on growth to tackle cost of living fears

But opposition parties criticise the government's agenda, saying there's no plan to help struggling families.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[guerney]

He's a wealthy neoconservative, a career politician. Which would normally fill me with dread. But not as much as the sight of dianne Abbott clambering onto a soap box

Labour have really got to learn to hide the crazy, until after they've won a general election, as the Tories do. Starmer is not running a tight enough ship!

 

[oldgroaner]

Time for something cultural a BBC nature documentary

 

[oyster]

Labour have really got to learn to hide the crazy, until after they've won a general election, as the Tories do. Starmer is not running a tight enough ship!

A bit tedious but interesting to see some coverage of at least some drivers of the war.

 

[flecc]

He's a wealthy neoconservative, a career politician. Which would normally fill me with dread. But not as much as the sight of dianne Abbott clambering onto a soap box

If Boris Johnson is fit to be our Prime Minister, by the same token Diane Abbot very easily qualifies to lead the Labour party.

And Diane has held her Labour parliamentary seat continuously for 35 years with her constituents refusing to hear a word against her. Hardly something that could ever be said about Johnson.
.

 

[oyster]

If Boris Johnson is fit to be our Prime Minister

He ain't. She might be - but she has been subject to extreme targetting in some media.

 

[flecc]

He ain't. She might be - but she has been subject to extreme targetting in some media.

Indeed, the usual Tory smear tactics.

Diane isn't as sharp as she once was, we all get older, but as Woosh has remarked about her in her earlier career, she has an excellent political brain. Certainly far better than Johnson's, so she's easily capable of leading the party. It's not all about PM's question time repartee which is inconsequential. Time can be taken when making leadership decisions.
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